SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The executive chef of one of the hottest new restaurants in the Capital Region also will be in charge of the kitchen at the storied seasonal restaurant Siro's this summer and next.Noah Frese, who quickly gained a strong following as the startup chef of The Roosevelt Room that opened last July in North Greenbush (my review here), will be juggling both positions during the Saratoga Race Course meeting this year and next. He succeeds Elliot Vogel, who ran the Siro's kitchen for two seasons and now is executive chef at another trendy new restaurant, The Delaware in Albany.

Frese, 27, won a place among the "Rising Star" young chefs at the recent Albany Chefs’ Food & Wine Festival.

NEWS ITEMS FROM: OWLS HEAD, AMSTERDAM, EPHRATAH

• The Trailside Bar & Restaurant, Route 27, Owls Head -- A familiar venue is back in operation in this Franklin County hamlet an hour's drive north of Saranac Lake. The Trailside was opened a quarter-century ago by Ron and Brenda Monette, but was badly damaged by a fire in October 2021 and closed. Tom Rath, owner of the Rockbottomgolf.com online golf equipment purveyor, purchased the property in January 2022 and has been renovating it since then.

LAKE GEORGE -- The village's main street will be offering something new this summer -- Lake George Wednesdays Markets.

The weekly Canada Street event is being sponsored by the Adirondack Pub & Brewery and adjacent High Peaks Distilling from 3 to 7 p.m. each Wednesday from June 19 through August 21 in the distillery parking lot, with a 6-7 p.m. "happy hour" in the distillery.

WEST COXSACKIE -- Zach Berger, a much-traveled Hudson Valley private chef who operates under the business title Chef Zach Berger's Cultural Paradise, will be sharing what he learned in a recent six-country tour of Southeast Asia during a special dinner at the Owls Hoot Barn event space.

"I’d love to show you some of the flavors and dishes that I studied over the past few months. I spent a little over two months traveling six countries in Southeast Asia.

KINGSTON -- The city has scheduled repaving work on portions of North Front Street for Wednesday this week. That will affect a variety of businesses for the day.

Some eateries are directly in the affected work area, others nearby will be affected by temporary alterations of traffic patterns. In all instances, pedestrian traffic should be unimpeded.

Among them is Kingston Bread + Bar, located at 43 North Front Street, which has cut its hours for the day to 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

NEWS ITEMS FROM: SCHENECTADY, HUDSON, EAST GREENBUSH, THE BERKSHIRES

• Mac & Roni, 183 Nott Terrace, Schenectady -- This casual Italian restaurant, slated to open sometime in May, is in the process of hiring staff under owner Chris Marotta. The location is a 3,000-square-foot building constructed in 2018 on the site of what previously had been the location of a Pizza Hut and the former Castelo's Restaurant. It also has a large outdoor dining patio.

This is just a bit beyond the borders of what I call the Greater Capital Region, but readers in the Ulster County area may be familiar with the nearby Lower Hudson Valley venues and personalities involved.

The leading actor is renowned chef Peter X. Kelly, who has cooked in the Hudson Valley for the past three decades, and the venues are his various restaurants as well as his new employer as he enters a new phase of his culinary career.

CHESTERTOWN -- The historic Friends Lake Inn is as renowned for its culinary possibilities as it is for its Adirondack-style lodging.

The Washington County establishment, a perennial Wine Spectator award winner, has a three-event, five-course food-and-beverage tasting series planned for the first half of 2024, with a menu created by its new executive chef.

The schedule:

Wine With Friends, 6 p.m. Sunday, April 28 Tequila With Friends, 6 p.m. Sunday, May 5 Beer With Friends, 6 p.m.

AMSTERDAM -- The numbers are in: 2,800 votes cast by attendees at Saturday's 5th annual WingFest for more than 30 flavors of wings supplied by 22 establishments.

LAKE PLACID -- A Finger Lakes brewery has received conditional approval of its plan to create a satellite taproom in this Adirondacks resort village. 

Prison City Brewing of Auburn, Cayuga County, had applied to the Lake Placid-North Elba Joint Review Board for permission to create a taproom at 2577 Main Street, which had been home to Bear Essentials Apparel. That business decided not to renew its lease there although it continues to operate a Saranac Lake shop.
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